Hi friends! Today is my first blog feature and I am very excited to be interviewing Jules from Canine & Couture!  I recently had the pleasure of discovering her blog (only a few months ago) and instantly fell in love with it!  Jules and Rufus are super cute and her adoration for fashion, food, design, dogs, and all things pretty are evident once you visit her site.  I had Jules answer a few questions so we could all get to know her better.

First give me a little back ground history on how Canines & Couture came to be.

Canines & Couture was born in a Fashion Marketing class at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I did a whole project on creating a brand and marketing campaign around the concept. I remember my teacher saying to me that Canines & Couture was something that I could actually bring to fruition and ended up getting an A on the project. Ultimately I decided that pursuing my Masters at AAU was not for me but the idea behind Canines & Couture stayed with me until finally I acted on it. Now I realize that even though I felt some guilt over quitting AAU, it was absolutely necessary for where I am today with my blog. I’ve truly found my passion and I didn’t need to spend $100,000+ to get there!

What type of reader would be attracted to your blog, and what can readers expect when they visit Canines & Couture?

Canines & Couture is a fusion of two of my favorite things in life, fashion and dogs. A lot of people think it’s about dog fashion when they hear the name but really, that’s only a small part of my content. I talk about women’s fashion and dogs in equal parts and some of that includes dog fashion. I think those who are most attracted to my blog are fashionable dog lovers and fashionable dog owners, as well as English Bulldog owners and admirers. I think my readers are people who pay attention to and covet the details in life.

The great thing about Canines & Couture is that you don’t have to be completely passionate about both to enjoy my content. I have a lot of followers who just love fashion or just love dogs but feel a little indifferent about the other piece of the puzzle. It makes it fun and challenging for me to have two very different audiences at times. If you follow along religiously, you’ll notice I also throw in some other topics I’m passionate about, such as psychology, home décor, food, and the business of blogging.

I don’t think I have ever met an English bulldog before, so please tell me why Rufus is the love of your life?

Rufus is like no other dog I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with. He is a clown; a clutz; a drooling, slobbering, farting, sneezing, shedding, nugget ball of fur. There’s something so unfiltered and transparent about his love. He loves me with reckless abandon, head butting me when he’s happy to see me come through the door; snorting snot all over my face when he’s really excited about getting fed; taking my knees out when he’s circling around me protectively over someone or another dog. He’s careless and goofy and heart-meltingly cute. My heart literally aches from joy when I look at his smooshy face, 1-inch under bite and protruding teeth. And it doesn't matter how many times he throws up on the carpet or poops in the kitchen (which is thankfully few and far between now); I can never be angry with him. Never. English Bulldogs are part of my soul; my love for the breed comes from the deepest part of my authentic self.

Canine & Couture recently celebrated its one year anniversary. Did you know what you were getting yourself into when you started blogging?

I did and I didn't. I knew that if I really wanted to make Canines & Couture special; I needed to work hard. What surprised me was how much I loved it. How natural it felt. How much relief I felt finding something I was so passionate about. I was also surprised at just how much there was to learn and how willing and eager I was to learn it. There is SO much to take in about the business of blogging. I think a lot of people who don’t blog professionally think, “How hard could it be?” When in reality, blogging is not for the faint of heart, especially if you want to do it well and have another life-sustaining job.

They say that no outfit is complete without dog hair, but I’m sure you have some other thoughts regarding that subject. Can you give us any fashion tips when it comes to maintaining a stylish wardrobe while owning a dog?

What a great question. Avoid black! Haha Honestly, my biggest piece of advice would be to relieve yourself from the expectation that you will ever have or own anything perfect-looking again. This was a particularly hard notion to grasp for me because I’m a perfectionist and love beautiful things. I would fight it when I first got Rufus and every time he got hair, drool, snot, or even poop on one of my most fashionable possessions, it would frustrate me so much. I started to feel unstylish! Now, I’ve accepted wholly that this is part of my life; the hair all over my bed and rugs; the drool on my black slacks; the chew marks on my shoes (from his puppy months); the dirt from his paws on my jeans. Once I stopped worrying about it, I actually felt MORE fashionable because I had this amazing animal by my side when I left the house. He gets me more attention than I ever would on my own wearing clothes that are dog hair-free.

Don’t you just love her and Rufus now? Make sure to stop by her blog (to read our feature) and welcome her to the dog blogging community!

 Interested in doing a blog swap? Send me an email and we can chat about it!